The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-05-19
PIONEER PREACHING.
DR.. Simmons Tells of the Times
When He Carried the Gospel to the
Pacific Coast.

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When He Carried the Gospel to the
Pacific Coast.
One of the ablest and most eloquent
pulpit orators in California to-day is
Rev. DIR. j. G. Simmons, pastor of the
Methodist Episcopal church south at
Chico. says The Sacramento Bee. Last
Sunday evening, in that city, he preach
ed his thirty-ffth anniversary sermon,
telling at length the story of his work
in the vineyard of the Pacific coast. He
is the son of an honored Metho dist
preacher of the Georgia conference,
and was born in Butts county, Georgia,
in 1927. He graduated from Emery
college, at Oxford, Ga, in l84S, and
was ordained to preach few days af-
ter receiving his diploma. In 1852 he
was sent as a missionary to California,
reaching San Francisco in February of
that year
The doctor relates that the first OBJ
iects that attracted his attention upon
stepping from the ship were the inn
mense gambling saloons, brilliantly
lighted and crowded with men, with
here and there woman seated at ia
BILE experimenting a game. Great
piles of gold lay in utmost profusion on
the tables. Shrewd and well-dressed
gamesters were on hand to fleece the
roughly dressed miners, large numbers
of whom were stalking and loosing their
treasures on the turn of card. He at
once concluded that here was a field
that needed religious influence, and he
longed to be at work. He was present
and assisted in the organization of the
Pacific Annual conference of the Meth
odsn Episcopal church south in April,
1852, and is the only remaining men,
Der of that first conference in Califor-
mia. The doctor was sent to perform
his work in the mines. His first SER
mon in California was preached in Sac
ramento, where he stopped one day
while on his way to Grass Valley,
He had rough experience from the
day he left Sacramento, but he stood
up bravely. AS he left this city he was
homesick, but his thoughts were soon
absorbed while rolling along in the old
stage coach in admiring the lovely Sac
ramento valley, which was not gemmed
as now, with fine farm-houscs, vine
yards, orchards, and gardens, but only
one wide, flower-spangled plain. As
he arrived in Nevada City, at night,
snow was falling rapidly. The crooked
streets were crowded with miners and
gambling halls were wide open. The
parsonage, where he was to stop
was a rough shed made of Shakes"
built to the eud of the church, which
was constructed of the same material.
1t was rather hard to turn into such a
building, where the rude blasts of The
sierras could sweep through, But that
was the style of the buildings all over
the town.
The preacher opened his commission
at Grass Valley on the Sunday follow
ing his arrival in the mines. The
"church" consisted of nothing but the
framework, and Dr. Simmons, set to
work and completed it with his own
hands. His congregation consisted
mostly of men, and few of them at
that. If half dozen ladies were
present it was considered wonderful.
1t was desperate work trying to
convert men who had gone into the
mines, tasted of the gold excitement
cast off all restraint and plunged reck-
lessly into anything and everything
that came along. And yet some of
the widest Of the men had themselves
been preachers and professors back in
the states.
The doctor travelled from mine to
mine on foot, aud he was acquainted
with every gold hunter for miles around.
He ate with them, slept with them at
night, but often alone under tree. He
preached to them on Sundays, attend
ed to them in sickness, and buried their
dead. He preached under trees. in
cabins, in saloons, tenpin alleys, and
gamblings halls. On many occasions
he would stand in a saloon behind a
bar, which he would use for a pulpit,
while his congregation of miners, all
heavily armed with pistols and knives,
would sit on the whisky barrels while
he urged them to buy gold tried in the